Tropicana Field has been a tough place for anybody but the Rays to win for a few years now but it has been a particular house of horrors for the Toronto Blue Jays.

The last time the Jays won a series here was in the first week of April, 2007 when they took 2 of 3. That’s 14 trips.

After Monday’s 6-2 victory in the opener of this three-gamer, Toronto has two chances Tuesday and Wednesday to end that miserable streak.

Kyle Drabek bent but didn’t break as he put on a high-wire act. He managed to hang in for six full innings and 118 pitches for his fourth win of the year, despite six walks and three wild pitches. He got an offensive boost from Yunel Escobar, who hit a go-ahead homer in the sixth. He was also aided by some uncharacteristic defensive sloppiness from the Rays.

To say the Rays have owned the Jays over the last four-plus seasons is a gross understatement. Since the start of the 2008 season, the teams have played 26 series and Toronto has won exactly two of those series, lost 23 and tied one. No, the Trop is not a place any Blue Jay would look forward to. Unless your name is J.P. Arencibia.

“You can look at it that way,” said Arencibia before the game, “or you can look at it as ‘It’s time to change.’

“It’s time to re-write that history.”

As ballparks go, Tropicana Field is a travesty. As if anybody needed another reminder, B.J. Upton provided one in the first inning when his high fly touched one of the rings that helps support the roof. By ground rule it was, after a five-minute conference, declared a home run.

“When the ball was hit, I just ran to a spot where I thought it might be, like I always do then tried to find it. By that time, it was lost (in the wires or the catwalk),” said Rasmus.

Early on, the teams exchanged RBI singles, Eric Thames for Toronto and Sean Rodriguez for Tampa. Meanwhile, Drabek was once again fighting his control, using up 75 pitches to get through the first three innings. Despite that, he left after six with a 3-2 lead. Wildness aside, he allowed just three hits, including Upton’s bogus home run. In his last 22.1 innings, Drabek has walked 19 batters but through it all he has shown remarkable resilience.

“The first three innings I was spiking my fastball again and it got me in a little trouble,” said Drabek. “With the two-seamer I’m aiming for a low strike but I throw it too low and it hits the dirt and then J.P. and Jeff have to wear it. The fourth, fifth and sixth, those walks I had no problem with. But those early walks tend to get to me.

“For me the movement was the same but the effort level I had in the last three innings was, say, 100% rather than 110% early on. Just being able to relax and breathe after walks and hits keeps me calm and gives me the ability to try to make the right pitch.”

Farrell had no hesitation in sending Drabek out for the sixth inning after throwing 108 pitches through five.

“When he was in the strike zone, he was powerful, with good late action and they weren’t squaring him up,” said Farrell.

The Jays added three more important insurance runs in the eighth, aided by the Rays’ defence which committed two errors. The errors allowed the Jays to cash in a Colby Rasmus double and an intentional walk issued to Kelly Johnson. The third run scored after Jose Bautista took out second baseman Rhymes, not allowing him to complete the back end of a double play.

“It was an aggressive play, a good hard clean slide,” said the manager. “When you break up a DP and give us an extra run for a four-run margin at that stage of the game, it’s important.”

“He’s a talented young player that is in the beginning stages of what hopefully is a long productive career,” said Farrell, “but everyone involved in this game is a human and you’ve got to be able to deal with people on different levels and how you control your emotions in the heat of the moment is very much a part of that.”

“It hasn’t changed me at all,” said Lawrie. “I’m still the same player. I’m still going to have the same fire. At the same time, the only thing I have to learn is not to throw a helmet toward an umpire. That’s what I learned.

“I can’t worry about the umpires. It’s hard to play this game as it is, let alone play against nine other guys and then play against four other guys, the umpires. I feel the best way to do things is to worry about our team, worry about our guys.”